THE APIDES. 
241 
is tinted with longitudinal bands of different colours. The en- 
velope is attached closely to the branch above and below the 
extreme combs, and is perforated low down by a small opening for 
the insects. Inside there is plenty of room between the combs 
themselves, and the envelope is not attached to them, so that the 
wasps can pass up from the bottom to the top of the nest with ease. 
BEES. 
( Apides . ) 
The nest-making Hymenoptera , which collect honey and pollen, 
are more interesting, so far as their organisation is concerned, 
than any others ; and if it were not for the ants, they might also 
lay claim to possessing greater intelligence and higher instincts 
than any insects. All the insects which form the family of the 
Apides — of which the bee is the commonest type — have in fact a 
higher organisation than any others. The concentration of their 
nervous System is greater than in any other Hymenoptera ; their 
respiratory apparatus is unusually developed, the tracheae of their 
abdomen being transformed into large sacs ; and the appendages 
of the head are especially adapted for particular purposes, their 
structures being very elaborate. The mandibles are turned into 
pincers fit to cut wood, or into instruments for digging and work- 
ing earth, and they are formed to enable the insects to knead 
cement in moulds to pound their wax in, according to the habits 
of different species. Among most of the bees the jaws and the 
lower lip, which are long and delicate, are used as a trunk to suck 
up honey from the nectaries of flowers ; and the hind legs, espe- 
cially the first joints of the tarsi, are transformed so as to act as 
pollen collectors. 
The bees are vegetarians during the whole of their lives ; the 
adults feed upon honey ; and the larvae, which require more sub- 
stantial aliment, are supplied with a sort of cake, which is 
composed of honey and pollen. The larvae of all these Hy- 
menoptera , like those of the wasps and the fossorial kinds, are 
incapable of moving about, and are destined to live in the 
narrow cells of the hive, where they are nursed by particular 
bees. Some bees are solitary, and others live in colonies, which 
